REVIEWS

the flexible entertainerThe songs on The Flexible Entertainer were written with live performance in mind. Listening to the treated and tweaked beats contained within this might seem surprising. Taking cues from producers like Timberland or the Neptunes the drums stutter, start and stop, accompanied by synth noises, sung-chanted vocals and winding, circular guitar figures. 'Water' is a foot tapping stab at an almost pure pop approach with Fay Davis-Jeffers chanting playground-style something like Kelis or Gwen Stefani. Although it's easy to imagine how this track would go over well played loud at an outdoor festival, but it is a little odd hearing a band that presents itself as being in some way experimental or avant-garde aping a mainstream music style that was current seven or eight years ago. Fortunately while some other songs also flirt with pastiche (or perhaps homage) they sound fresher than the admittedly exhilarating drive of 'Water'. For the most part Butchy Fuego's guitar parts and Fay Davis-Jeffers vocals sound like more or less continuous performances while the looped and chopped beats provide drive and structure and the other elements add colour where necessary. Listening to the voice and guitar play to against each other gives the impression of this being an odd kind of 21st century folk music and this duo sound something like a modern day refracted and deconstructed version of the Carter Family. There is a film soundtrack-like spy movie atmosphere running through many tracks particularly 'Night Room'. 'Emperor of Charms' features some impressively wigged-out snake-charmer guitar work at the end. 'Specimen' has an appeailing dubby bass-heavy vibe and even features a melodica. Taken as a whole, the repetitive nature of the melodies in these songs can drift between seeming hypnotic and just being maddening. Listened individually though, many tracks are inventive without being inaccessible and danceable without being too dumb to listen to outside of the dancefloor. The record label suggests 'play it multiple times at high volume for best listening results', if that idea appeals The Flexible Entertainer could be for you. -- nick ilott.

:: Pit Er Pat/The Flexible Entertainer - Thrill Jockey/Rough Trade. 

a chorus of storytellersA Chorus of Storytellers shimmers into existence to the chatter of indecipherable voices, glitchy noises and a sequence of chords remarkably reminiscent of Brian Eno's The Big Ship. The rest of the album has similarities to The Big Ship's parent album, Another Green World with its washes of electronically-treated noises interspersed with more conventional songs and the general aura of numbed surrender. In contrast to Eno's knowing camp though, Jimmy LaValle and his cohorts play things fairly straight. 'There is a Wind', the first track with vocals, has an understated grandeur typical of this collection. The lyrics, delivered in a manner not unlike a heavily sedated Michael Stipe, sketch out a quiet drama contained in pauses of conversation and tensions left unexpressed. 'There is something in the way/there is something I can't say' murmers LaValle, sounding somewhere beyond any intensity of expression. The contrast between the lush, romantic textures of the strings on 'Within Dreams', or the slide guitar in 'Tied Knots' which rivals the KLF's 'Light a Fire' in it's understated plangency, and the disconnected vocal approach inverts the more usual arrangement of a singer emoting over a relatively restrained accompaniment. 'Falling from the Sun' is something like how the Flaming Lips might sound if they were less self-consciously 'zany'. 'Stand Still' begins with stately grace of Massive Attack's 'Weather Storm' but ends with characteristically warm and lush sounding textures, by the time the pizicato string part arrives it has moved a very long way from chilly minimalism or claustrophobic paranoia as the whole thing tails off into a huge soft blur of reverb. The gentle, but epic nature of the arrangements also bring to mind Sufjan Stevens and despite the fact that  less than half the songs have lyrics the cycles of undefined images leave a lasting impression on the listener. 'We Are' brings it all together: 'Under the night sky/ the twilight/ we find ourselves here again/ breaking out of standstills/ we are drifting from the shore/ we are covered in the landslide/ we are climbing off the floor'. Always a poet at heart, Leonard Cohen recently remarked 'most of us cherish some sort of dream of surrender', this music might be the sound of that surrender. -- Nick Ilott

:: The Album Leaf/A Chorus of Storytellers - Sub Pop/Cargo. 

luck in the valleyJack Rose, Jack Rose, Jack Rose. Es kursieren ein paar Nachrufe im Netz, schaut mal bei Arthur Magazine vorbei, der Junge hat sich ja leider nun mit erst 38 Jahren endgültig nach Hause verabschiedet, der 5te Dezember letzten Jahres wars glaub ich, ein Herzanfall. Jammerschade dies, denn Jack Rose war ein Original, einer der wirklich raren „echten“ Musikern, Herz und Talent am rechten Fleck. Immerhin hat es Jack zweimal nach Berlin geschafft, im Januar 2007 in der Zentralen Randlage auf Tour mit den Belgisch Funeralfolkers Ignatz + Silvester Anfang, ein sehr schönes Konzert, auch schön anzusehen wie ihm nach seiner italienischen Pizza und dem obligaten Bier ein zufriedenes Lächeln entweicht, kurz und knapp nur, denn Jack hatte das seltene Talent, knarzig verstimmt und karg murrend zu wirken, für Aussenstehende zumindest. Ein Jahr später im West Germany zusammen mit Keith Woods/Hush Arbors war es dann soweit, der Sound des Abends war Müll und direkt nach dem Gig schien es einen Moment lang der Typ erschlägt mich jetzt. Nix passiert ausser Grollen und Wettern, lucky me - eine originellere Analogie fällt mir jetzt nicht ein, Jacks Gemütszustand ist in etwa mit dem eines Bären zu vergleichen, es wird zwar ständig und auch mal heftig gebrummt, ein Glässchen Honig aber zur rechten Zeit wischt sofort allen Unmut vom Tisch. Sein neues Album Luck In The Valley wird nun als sein Vermächtnis bestehen bleiben, von den vielen Live-Mitschnitten, Bootlegs und Compilations mal abgesehen, die da ganz sicher noch folgen werden. Luck In The Valley ist ein Jack Rose-typischer Folk-Blues-Country-Raga Blend, samt Steel Strings, Jews Harp, Fiddle, Banjo und Jug als Instrumente, Jacks Fingerpicking und Slide-Spiel sind wie stets überaus exzellent, wobei die Tracks Tree In The Valley und Moon In The Gutter wohl am besten das mulmige Gefühl unterstreichen das beim Hören bleibt, mit all den unerfreulichen Umständen im Gepäck. Zur Zeit gibt es ein paar Tribute-Konzerte drüben in Philly, NYC und London, gehet und sehet, mit zumeist wahlverwandten Kollegen und Kollaborateuren wie u.a. D. Charles Speer, Meg Baird, Chris Forsyth, den Black Twig Pickers und auch der verbliebenen Restmannschaft von Jacks erster Band Pelt. 

:: Jack Rose/Luck In The Valley - Thrill Jockey/Rough Trade